The Fast and the Furious (2001 film)

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The Fast and the Furious
The Fast and The Furious theatrical poster
Directed by	Rob Cohen
Produced by	Neal H. Moritz
Written by	Ken Li (magazine article Racer X) Gary Scott Thompson Erik Bergquist David Ayer
Starring	Vin Diesel Paul Walker Jordana Brewster Michelle Rodriguez
Editing by	u
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	June 22, 2001 (USA)
Running time	106 min.
Language	English
Budget	$38,000,000 US (est.)
Followed by	2 Fast 2 Furious
IMDb profile

Vin Diesel and Paul Walker in The Fast and the Furious.

The Fast and the Furious is a 2001 action film starring Paul Walker and Vin Diesel, and directed by Rob Cohen. The Fast and the Furious was the first mainstream film to feature the import scene.

[edit] Plot

Dominic Toretto (Diesel) is the leader of a street racing gang that is under suspicion of hijacking trucks for their cargo of expensive electronic equipment. Undercover cop Brian O'Conner (Walker) attempts to find out who exactly is stealing the equipment by infiltrating the local racing community with the help of a local auto parts dealer, while falling for Dominic's younger sister Mia (Jordana Brewster).

After O'Conner loses his Mitsubishi Eclipse to Toretto in a race for "pink slips" (a 1950s slang term for the registration documents for a car in the United States) and then loses it again when they are confronted by Toretto's rival Johnny Tran (Rick Yune), O'Conner tries to gain the trust of Toretto by working on repairing and upgrading a burned out Toyota Supra to hand over to him. While doing this, O'Conner is constantly pressured by his superiors in the LAPD and the FBI to bring the investigation to a satisfactory close, leading him to face a stark choice between the community he has embedded himself into and the woman he has become close to, or discarding his cover and discovering who from the street gangs is carrying out the hijackings.

[edit] Impact

Although met with mixed reviews, The Fast and the Furious is credited as the first cinematic insight into America's illegal sport compact racing community. Because of this novelty as well as a variety of groundbreaking race visuals, The Fast and the Furious became one of the most well-known movies around the turn of the millennium, and left tricked out Japanese compacts imprinted in American popular culture. It also features the performance largely responsible for Vin Diesel's launch into a superstar

[edit] Reception

Initially, media watchdog groups blamed the film for an increase in illegal street racing. Proponents of the film pointed out that it demonstrated both the thrills and dangers of drag racing, while still others note that movies like "American Graffiti" and "Two-Lane Blacktop" (from the 1970s) set the precedents decades ago.

The movie became the stereotypical template blamed for flooding the streets with Rice burners, largely because of the "all show and no go" nature of the cars and the exaggeration of the effects of nitrous oxide. Some believe this has lead to young adult viewers of the films, ignorant of the real nature of motor vehicle maintenance and tuning, modifying their cars with largely superficial modifications (such as body kits and ground effects, fluorescent lighting, and excessive aerodynamic wings) which would not positively affect racing performance. On the street, the term is "riced out."

However, it's worth noting that the film was responsible for a surge in sales in many styling and performance accessories: S.E.M.A (the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association) stated the "tuner" market experienced 2-3 years of record growth following the release.^{[citation needed]}

Early on, the script drew criticism from die hard tuner enthusiasts for a variety of reasons, mostly technical inaccuracies and for its use of the word "NAWWWS" (aka "NOS", Nitrous Oxide System) - a registered trademark of Holley Motor Company - to refer generically to various forms of nitrous oxide injection: in various scenes of the film, both Holley's NOS and Nitrous Express's NX systems are displayed prominently. This gaffe was corrected in the sequel, 2 Fast 2 Furious, wherein nitrous oxide injection systems were referred to by the more generic (and proper) designation "nitrous".

The movie struck a chord with audiences despite mistakes and received good reviews from early audiences who found that although the cars and dialog weren't without flaws, the engine's sounds were faithfully reproduced.

The movie spawned video games, two sequels, a top selling DVD, and a branded franchise estimated to be worth $500M to $1 Billion dollars for Universal Pictures.

Ironically, Universal underestimated the movie's ability to draw audiences. In early testing, the movie scored so well with test audiences, a Super Bowl commercial was rushed to release. At the time of the DVD release, it was one of the best selling DVD's of all time. The movie was filmed under the working-title "Redline" and it was not until months after wrapping was the title officially set.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Featured cars

Various modified and upgraded cars are featured in the movie, including the following:^[1]

[edit] Trivia

• After the credits are done, the scene shifts to Baja, Mexico where a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS is tearing through the desert and inside it is Dom Toretto who talks about how he lives his life a quarter of a mile at a time.
• The Jetta driven by the character Jesse is owned by Frankie Muniz, who said in an interview that it is the first car he has ever owned.
• During the first night race, Director Rob Cohen makes a cameo appearance as a Pizza Hut delivery driver.
• The title "The Fast and the Furious" was taken from the 1954 film with the same name, although the plots are not related.
• During the Race Wars when Dom gets in the fight with Tran, as the security guard is pulling him off, Vin Diesel accidentally elbowed him in the face breaking his nose.
• Paul Walker's Character's name is Brian O'Connor. Brian Earl Spillner is an alias used to get into Dom's gang. In 2 Fast 2 Furious, during the run to be a driver for the Drug lord, the undercover agent is checking ID's and Brian's name comes up "Brian Earl Spillner".

[edit] References

1. ^ Kris Palmer The Fast and the Furious The Official Car Guide Motorbooks ISBN 978-0-7603-2568-1
2. ^ According to the book The Fast and the Furious The Official Car Guide, Pgs 26-27, the Charger combines parts from a 1969 and 1969 Dodge Charger, but for the sake of the film, it is officially listed in the book as a 1970's model. Both years share the bar tailight across the back, while the 1970 model wears the chrome ring around its nose.
3. ^ Kris Palmer The Fast and the Furious The Official Car Guide Pgs 26-27
4. ^ Kris Palmer The Fast and the Furious The Official Car Guide Pgs 10-13
5. ^ Kris Palmer The Fast and the Furious The Official Car Guide Pgs 14-17
6. ^ Kris Palmer The Fast and the Furious The Official Car Guide Pgs 22-25
7. ^ Kris Palmer The Fast and the Furious The Official Car Guide Pgs 18-21

[edit] See also

• 2 Fast 2 Furious
• The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
• Import Scene
• Rice burner

[edit] External links

• Official Website
• The Fast and the Furious at the Internet Movie Database
• The Fast and the Furious at Rotten Tomatoes
• Holley NOS
• The Fast and the Furious Storyline (Spoiler Warning!)
• Internet Movie Cars Database - gallery of cars featured in The Fast and the Furious

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The Fast and the Furious